Hawaii - Day 5

Journey to South Point!  Day 5 was one with much driving, but we saw some amazing things. We drove south and stopped along the way near City of Refuge.  John and Elizabeth did some negotiating to get a $20 break on two 2-person kayaks for us to use for the morning.  Jay and Mom were in one kayak and Elizabeth and I were in the other.  John and Karsyn made sure the beach got some attention while we headed out.  I don't have any pictures of our adventure but I'll snag some from my sister.  We kayaked to Captain Cook's monument.  Interestingly, the Hawaiians murdered Captain Cook but felt bad about it so they made a nice monument for him that has been visited by ships from all over the world.  The ways to get there are on foot with a lengthy hike or by kayak.  Once there we encountered some amazing snorkeling and Mom finally had a really great, easy experience with a wonderful underwater show to see.  

After getting our fill we paddled back (it sure seemed a lot longer on the way back!) and packed up.  We stopped up the road at a fruit orchard/coffee/macadamia nut place - they seemed to dabble in a number of things.  We wandered through their vast array of fruit trees and this is where we learned that the fruit Jay and I saw on our hike to the old fishing village is known as "Vomit Fruit"!  We sampled some exotic fruits, none of which I recall the names of, and then stopped at the next place on the road for some lunch and shaved ice.  

Full and happy we decided to push on, driving south to South Point.  The road from the highway is fairly long and when you get to the end you are met with beautiful cliffs where fishermen used to hoist small boats up and still toss fishing lines out.  A short walk from the cliffs is a lava field where you can meet the ocean at the very tip of the island.  Wonderful!

Since we had come this far Elizabeth had one more place to show us - a black sand beach where turtles love to lay.  Sea turtles are federally protected and everyone seems to take this pretty seriously.  Two turtles where on the beach when we arrived and another guy/gal was working on getting back out into the ocean but kept being brought back in by the tide.  A lily pond and palm trees rounded out our visit.  We then made the ~90 minute drive back for some home cooked grub!